Beyond Sport Young Ambassadors

In every city where we hold an event, we select outstanding young individuals who have become leaders through sport.

In 2012, Beyond Sport set out to give young people a formal place in the movement of sport and social change – a place where they can advise, participate, and benefit from Beyond Sport’s major global gatherings and year-round by meeting each other and exchanging ideas, challenges and opinions about social issues. These are all young people that have faced adversity but due to love of sport, they have all come through to become incredible young leaders. All of this is an effort to further development these young people’s careers and create a platform for them to further develop using the power of sport.

Eight young people were selected from sport for development programmes based in London.

They each have varying backgrounds and stories from young offenders, Afghan refugees, obesity issues, strict religious upbringings and the issues that excluded them from society. The one thing they all have in common is their love for sport. They are all now powerful young leaders in their local communities using sport to change other peoples lives.

After the huge success of the London Young Ambassadors, we began work on creating the New York Young Ambassadors.

They again, each have varying background but sport has supported them to develop as young human beings. This has given them the opportunity to have an impact in other people’s lives far beyond the initial participation they once in sport.

An outcome of the Beyond Sport Summit & Awards 2013, in Philadelphia, 8 new young ambassadors were created.

In partnership with Glasgow 2014 and Glasgow City Council, we wanted to ensure that young people were formally represented in the sport for positive social change movement, with the opportunity to advise, participate and benefit from our major global gatherings and year-round work in sport and development.

The Beyond Sport Summit and Awards 2014 was held in various venues across Johannesburg. Eight young people were selected from sport for development programmes based in the city. They are all powerful young leaders in their local communities using sport to change other people’s lives.